Kunnamkulam custodial torture exposed after two years of RTI battle

Thrissur: It took two years of legal battle for Youth Congress leader V S Sujith to obtain the CCTV footage that exposed the custodial torture he suffered at the Kunnamkulam station. Kerala Police employed numerous tactics to withhold the visuals. 

Officers across various hierarchies colluded to conceal the brutality perpetrated by a few. Ultimately, it was the intervention of the Information Commissioner that brought the footage to light. The video was finally handed over following the orders of Information Commissioners Dr Sonichan P Joseph and Dr K M Dileep.

Sujith first filed a Right to Information (RTI) application on April 10, 2023. It was initially denied, citing the presence of a woman survivor from another case at the station during the incident and the need to protect her privacy. An appeal was also rejected, prompting Sujith to approach the Information Commission. Following this, Information Commissioner Dileep directed the police to hand over the visuals.

Still, the police resisted. They claimed that the footage had been transferred to the cyber cell due to maintenance work at the station building. An application to the cyber cell was also rejected. This time, they claimed that the police had handed over the footage without proper documentation. A subsequent appeal was denied as well.

Finally, when the matter was brought again before the Information Commission, Dr Sonichan issued a verdict in favour of Sujith. Although the police argued that the footage contained visuals of petitioners in a POCSO case, the Commission ordered the release with those portions redacted appropriately.

RTI activists note that applications for the release of visuals are often denied, citing the inclusion of POCSO case survivors in footage. Many applicants abandon their fight for information in such cases, while a few persist. Often, petitioners eventually receive relevant documents from the police after first or second appeals.

Recently, an elderly man approached the Information Commission seeking CCTV footage of the station where the writer had verbally abused him. When the footage was finally received, the portion showing the abuse was unclear.

Fight for accountability
"This is just the beginning. There’s more to come," said Congress in Kunnamkulam block vice president Varghese Chovannur, who led a long and determined battle to obtain the CCTV footage. He insisted that officers not captured in the footage must also be held accountable. He demanded that new charges corresponding to the crimes committed should be filed, and that the guilty must be punished. 

Varghese began his legal struggle by securing Sujith’s release on bail. Sujith joined the fight on Varghese’s assurance that “those who touched you will be made answerable.” AM Nidheesh, former president of the Youth Congress assembly constituency, also supported their efforts.

Varghese has also actively intervened in a case where a young man was brutally assaulted at Kunnamkulam police station after being taken into custody over a traffic violation dispute and falsely implicated in an attempted murder case.